From the folks who bring you FreeCreditReport.com, now there is Green Umbrella. It is an extended warranty plan for many household goods, and is sold by the month. Rather than buy a separate policy for each item, their plan is blanket coverage for multiple items in your house.
The company claims that “one plan can cover all your* Home Appliances, Personal Computers, and Electronics.”
Unless you just landed on planet earth (and didn’t bring anything with you from Mars), by its very terms, the plan cannot cover ALL items because:
*MOUSE PRINT:
“Covered Item means Electronics, Appliances, and Computers that meet the following requirements:
— Are purchased during the Coverage Period or within sixty (60) days prior to the Effective Date listed on the Cover Page of the Agreement; “
So, only items purchased no more than two months old are covered, as well as newly purchased items. The plan will not otherwise cover your existing computers, electronics, or appliances. [Note: Green Umbrella is running a promotion for September only whereby all qualifying items purchased during 2008 will be covered.]
How long does coverage last? As long as you pay the monthly fee, but you could fall into a trap. The coverage for any particular item is limited:
*MOUSE PRINT:
“Coverage begins on the date You purchase the Covered Item and terminates thirty-six (36) months from the purchase date”
You could easily be lulled into believing that your continued payments continue to cover everything purchased since the plan went into effect.
The service agreement is over 5500 words, and there are many catches and requirements, including having to register new purchases within 30 days; already purchased items must have come with at least a 12 month manufacturer’s warranty; if your DLP or LCD HDTV lamp burns out, they will only give you the bulb for you to replace on your own; you can only make two claims per year; and much more.
If you purchased the covered item with a credit card that provides extended warranty coverage, for say the second year, your coverage under this plan may be limited:
*MOUSE PRINT:
“Coverage is secondary to any other applicable warranty, insurance, indemnity, or extended warranty available to You. Coverage is limited to only those amounts not covered by any Other Coverage.”
So, if you have a manufacturer’s warranty for say a year, you must make a claim through it, and not this plan. The credit card warranty will kick in if you have a problem in the second year of ownership. And therefore only in year three will this plan provide any benefits. So you really have to do the math and recognize that your payments for the first two years of coverage cover nothing. In total, you will pay roughly $360 to get coverage in your products’ third year of life.
One last insult:
*MOUSE PRINT:
“The Coverage Period must continue without any lapse in payment (i.e. the Monthly Agreement Charge for this Agreement is not paid when due). If there is a lapse in payment a new Agreement will be issued upon receipt of the payment for the Monthly Agreement Charge. Only Electronics, Appliances, and Computers that qualify as Covered Items under the terms of the new Agreement will be covered.”
Translation: If your monthly payment arrives late, your old plan is cancelled and a new policy is issued. Therefore, all previously covered items will no longer be covered unless they were purchased in the prior two months.
The third mouse print is a pretty typical clause by insurance companies, it prevents insureds from “making money” off their claims (colleting money twice from two separate insurance companies for the same claim). But like most other service/warranty plans, they’re just not worth the money.
Other than not covering electronics, I really liked our AHS Home Warranty. When we got our house, it came with a fre one year warranty, and within 7 days of each other, my dryer, fridge, and over stove vent all died. Since I had 2 fridges, I called all 3 in at the same time and only had to pay the $100 deductible once. The fridge got fixed, and we got a brand new dryer and over stove vent.
MUCH better than having to spend several thousand to get everything fixed/replaced!
AHS makes sense for two reasons, you really dont know the exact condition of appliances left in a home you just bought and its a good way to protect yourself against unexpected expenses (specially after you emptied your bank account to pay for that down payment) and it is usually free to the buyer because the seller paid for it, the warranty itself is not free nor cheap. I just sold my home with a warranty and it cost me between $400-500.
The Green Umbrella plan looks great to me, for Green Umbrella. They have so many exclusions that all they ever do is collect premiums. They never have to pay out any benefits. I wonder if I could start a company like that.
Hey…maybe I can start my own program and undersell them…for only $7.95/month, get full coverage for everything in your home and terrific peace of mind *.
* Items must have at least a 12-month warranty and items are covered under this plan only for the first 12 months from date of purchase. Payments will be made after warranty payments are made and are only supplementary to such.
looks like a legal way to steal 10 bucks a month from idiots
Obviously, the only people who would buy this would think that it applies to ALL appliances and electronics that they’ve ever bought.
An extended warranty from the store (2-3 years) usually costs under $20. Since most people probably aren’t going to be making 6 or more appliance/electronics purchases per year, well…
Forget the lottery, here’s a new ‘stupid tax’.
It’s not coverage for stupid people. It’s coverage for people who aren’t aware of how deceptive it is. People shouldn’t have to go over offers with a fine-toothed comb to figure out whether they’re on the level or not.
Suggesting that this is an offer for stupid people suggests that the people are at fault for this, rather than the company that’s advertising deceptively. And the company in this case is known for deceptive advertising.
“Suggesting that this is an offer for stupid people suggests that the people are at fault for this, rather than the company that’s advertising deceptively. And the company in this case is known for deceptive advertising.”
The scary thing here, is that this is a company that is supposed to be watching and reporting consumer credit.
If one of the credit bureaus has a reputation for being deceptive……. There just aren’t words for the rest of that statement.
“It’s not coverage for stupid people. It’s coverage for people who aren’t aware of how deceptive it is. People shouldn’t have to go over offers with a fine-toothed comb to figure out whether they’re on the level or not.”
I don’t think you should really base PURCHASING an insurance policy like this based soley on a “deceptive” advertisment. It is the consumer’s responsibility to know what they are signing up for when they sign on the dotted line. If that requires going “over offers with a fine-toothed comb”, then that’s what it requires. That’s why you hire a good insurance agent, lawyer or just plain learn to READ!!! Anything less is . . . well, STUPID!!!!!
PEACE OUT!
Shawn
They’re not actually a company that’s supposed to be watching and reporting consumer credit. They’re just a bunch of opportunists who saw a chance to make a quick buck by pretending to be something they’re not.
Your actual free credit report comes from annualcreditreport.com, not from the scammers at “free” credit report. (Though note that even the ostensibly legitimate agencies behind annualcreditreport.com would love to con you into paying for something they’re legally obligated to give you for free.)
“That’s why you hire a good insurance agent, lawyer or just plain learn to READ!!! Anything less is . . .
well, STUPID!!!!!”
If I spent the money to hire a lawyer to go over a 5500 word contract written in legal jargan, he’d tell me
the contract was not worth it’s salt but I’d still be out about the same amount of money to pay his bill. I
don’t know of any insurance agents who are going to read this out, they would rather spend the time to sell
their service.
I’m definitely not stupid, but if I had to sit down and try to slog my way through all that, I’d probably fall
asleep and miss something, too. These shisters purposely write these contracts with this in mind. Either you
can’t afford to have someone read and define it for you, don’t have the time to read it yourself, or can’t get
past the legal terms to really understand it.
That’s not stupid and these people aren’t stupid. This is slick cunning and boarderline dishonest.
Edgar replies:
Dear friends,
This is NOT a message forum where people go back and forth and snipe at each other.
Because of the continued “stupid-related” series of messages, comments for this posting are closed.
Please keep comments relevant to the advertising/fine print issue raised, and avoid the name-calling that all too often characterizes online discussions.
Thanks.